Google Inc(NASDAQ:GOOG)
has changed its privacy policies this year and has merged several policies for
a number of products into a more unified policy covering most Google products.
This was declared sometime in January this year and was put into effect in
March.
Google has faced a good
deal of criticism over its move from time to time. The concern had evaporated
from the headlines presently. It is back, as per reports of The Guardian,
quoting a few unnamed sources. The change is expected to come under fire from
European information protection commissioners in a matter of days.
The team of 30 commissioners
from European Union is supposed to have decided that Google has breached EU
privacy laws.
Importantly, Google’s
privacy policy allows the company to use data from its products. It does so
only to enhance user experience. For an instance, it could make recommendations
on YouTube videos based on things users have searched on Google. It can target
advertiser in a better way and it can also personalize search outcomes.
Ever since Google has
introduced Google+, it has tried to merge its various products into one core
Google product. Those products are basically features of one central product.
This is again accentuated by the top navigation bar that comes up across Google
products. The privacy policy changes simply allow Google to treat user data
like that.
If Facebook is
considered for comparison, Google+ is more like the news feed of Facebook.
Picasa Web Albums is like Facebook’s photo stream. Google is like Facebook’s
search feature. Google Docs is similar to the Notes feature of Facebook. Such a
comparison could become more substantiated as Facebook releases its recently
talked-about search offering.
It will be interesting
to see if any action is taken against Google by the European Union and what
political consequences Google might have to bear in Europe.
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